News Release Number: STScI-2010-29

Cosmic Ice Sculptures: Dust Pillars in the Carina Nebula

September 16, 2010: Enjoying a frozen treat on a hot summer day can leave a sticky
mess as it melts in the Sun and deforms. In the cold vacuum of
space, there is no edible ice cream, but there is radiation from
massive stars that is carving away at cold molecular clouds,
creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures. These one-light-year-tall
pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space
Telescope, are located in the Carina Nebula.

This image is a composite of Hubble observations taken of the
Carina Nebula region in 2005 in hydrogen light (light emitted by hydrogen atoms) along with observations
taken in oxygen light (light emitted by oxygen atoms) in 2010, both times with Hubble's Advanced
Camera for Surveys. The immense Carina Nebula is an estimated 7,500
light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.